THE Sauber team has cancelled its planned test with Swiss driver Marcel Fassler because he will shortly be trying a McLaren-Mercedes and Sauber's engine supplier Ferrari does not want any information leaking between the two teams. Fassler had been expected to test for the team at Magny-Cours next week.

NOT slow on the uptake when borrowing a little of the world championship-winning veneer of sister marque Ferrari, Fiat will launch its new and important Stilo model today (Wednesday), with Michael Schumacher at the wheel.

WITH Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard entering their seventh year together as team-mates in the McLaren-Mercedes squad, one could be forgiven for thinking that the team has a more pressing need than most to find new drivers for the future.

ALEX YOONG, the new Minardi Formula 1 driver who hasn't scored a point in his last two seasons of racing in Japan's Formula Nippon series, has responded to suggestions that he hasn't got the ideal track record to date when entering the sport's top flight.

THE world championship titles may be lost to the McLaren team, but its drivers are looking forward to the Belgian Grand Prix and a race on what is widely held to be the ultimate drivers circuit - Spa-Francorchamps.

FRENCH tire giant Michelin endured one of the worst weekends in its return to Formula 1 when last the F1 teams gathered in Hungary, when it was completely outpaced on the tight and dusty Hungaroring by its rivals at Bridgestone.

THE idea of 'one shot' qualifying is not a new one, but Tom Walkinshaw is pushing for this form of qualifying to replace the time-honored 60 minute strategy to be ousted in favor of the lottery-style qualifying session in a bid to enliven the all-important race day.

THE notoriously fickle weather in the Ardennes has prompted several teams to try out their cars in wet weather conditions before the Belgian Grand Prix - no mean feat as most of Europe enjoys a balmy late August.

AFTER more intensive running for the European Minardi team in the recent Mugello test, the FIA has bestowed a Superlicence on Malaysian hopeful Alex Yoong - and the team will enter him for the final three races of the year in Italy, America and Japan.

VOLKSWAGEN is planning a major rebranding process to increase sales of Audi and Seat cars and, interestingly, the intention seems to be to make them both more exciting and this would seem to suggest that motorsport programs are the logical way forward.

AFTER battling against disappointment and dehydration in Hungary last weekend, David Coulthard has bounced back to declare himself the man most likely to turn the tide against Ferrari and Michael Schumacher in 2002.

THE announcement that Giancarlo Fisichella will be racing for Jordan and that Jarno Trulli will race for Renault Sport must be taken as a solid indication that McLaren is not looking for any new drivers. And according to Keke Rosberg the deals are already done for the year ahead.

THE European Minardi team is believed to have decided on its engine for next year and so we expect to hear shortly what Paul Stoddart's choice will be. Stoddart has been talking to Ferrari, Ford and Asiatech but each deal has its drawbacks.

KEN TYRRELL, who died early on Saturday morning, will be remembered not only as one of Britain's leading formula one team owners, but also the man who helped mastermind Jackie Stewart's run of three world championships.

AFTER a torrid year in 2001 that has seen the pre-season promise of its link-up with Ferrari dashed, sponsor funds fail to materialize and a total of four drivers appear in the race team, Alain Prost has set his hopes on achieving some stability in his team in 2002.

IN the wake of the shake-up at Jaguar, the team has appointed a new director of communications with Martin Whitaker being drafted in to take over the job, having decided to give up his job as head of Ford Racing - overseeing all other aspects of the car company's competition policy, notably the World Rally Championship.

JAPANESE tire supplier Bridgestone has voiced its frustration that the Toyota team, running on rival brand Michelin's rubber, was allowed to test at Spa so soon before next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, potentially gaining invaluable data for its French counterpart.

THE pressure to secure Formula 1 races in new markets and to ensure that the very latest safety and communications facilities are in place at all the Grands Prix has led to Bernie Ecclestone's announcement that three of the current races will be canned by 2003.

NIKI LAUDA has won his battle for control of the Jaguar F1 team as it will be announced on Friday that Bobby Rahal has been ousted from his position as its chief executive officer after less than a year in the post.

RALF SCHUMACHER has been preparing for the run in to the end of the Formula 1 season by travelling with Williams to the Circuit de Catalunya in company with the fellow Michelin-shod men of the Benetton team.

GIANCARLO FISICHELLA will replace his compatriot Jarno Trulli in the Jordan-Honda team next season in a three year deal designed to provide the British team with the continuity it believes it requires to improve its competitiveness and establish itself as a possible winning force.

IF Mika Hakkinen could drive as well every weekend as he did on his way to winning the British Grand Prix, McLaren boss Ron Dennis would probably be pushing a new two year contract under the Finn's nose and urging him to sign it as quickly as possible.

ITALY and Germany have gone Formula 1 crazy after Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello scored their 1-2 finish in the Hungarian Grand Prix, netting both the drivers' and constructors' world championships.

WHEN Jaguar entered F1 at the start of the 2000 season its arrival was heralded as a marketing tour-de-force, capitalizing on possibly the most magical marque name after Ferrari in the pantheon of high performance car makers.

AN explosion is expected later this week at Jaguar Racing with a shake-up of the management of the team looking like an inevitability. That will mean that either Bobby Rahal or Niki Lauda is going to be out.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER could easily win another twenty F1 victories before he retires from motor racing according to Alain Prost, the man whose record of 51 wins and four world championships he equalled with his victory in Sunday's Hungarian grand Prix.

AS the victorious Ferrari team members hugged each other, sprayed champagne and danced jigs around the base of Michael Schumacher's victory podium, the rest of the formula one fraternity was left licking its wounds and, briefly at least, allowing itself a touch of self pity.

THE curb that launched the McLaren of David Coulthard out of the running in Friday's Free Practice session was ground down to size after discussions between several teams and drivers and the FIA's Charlie Whiting.

JEAN ALESI, Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella are all claiming to have had offers of employment from Jordan Grand Prix for 2002, further muddying the somewhat turbulent waters at the British-based team since the sacking of Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the run-up to the German Grand Prix last month.

IT is no secret that Formula 1 would like to have an American driver to help the sport grow in the United States and one or two of the more far-sighted F1 team bosses have been keeping a closer than usual eye on the domestic scene while also keeping track of the rise of US stars in European racing.

THE legalized red light district of Camp Erotica, which caused a minor scandal at the 2000 Hungarian Grand Prix, will not be repeated next weekend - although the annual pilgrimage of prostitutes from all over the old Eastern Bloc is likely to continue unabated.

JEAN ALESI completed the short shakedown test of his new mount, the Jordan EJ11, at Silverstone on Monday morning and the Frenchman continued to enthuse about rejoining the team with which he won the 1989 FIA Formula 3000 championship.

HAVING barely contained his enthusiasm for the move to Jordan already, Jean Alesi bubbled further about his deal with his new team during an interview on French TV with the declaration that a contract is in place for him to remain with the team in 2002.

FORMULA 1 team bosses tend to keep a vague on what is happening in CART and this year is developing into a curious championship situation as there is no clearly dominant force despite there having been 13 of the 21 races.

FORMER Formula 1 driver and occasional Arrows test driver Johnny Herbert spent the weekend in Sparta, Kentucky, watching Buddy Lazier take his Hemelgarn Dallara-Aurora to victory in the Indy Racing League event at the Kentucky Speedway and today Herbert is due to test a Heritage Motorsports G-Force-Infiniti on the 1.5-mile banked oval.

DARIO FRANCHITTI popped back to Britain last week to promote next month's CART Champ Car race at the new Rockingham Speedway in Northamptonshire, but couldn't help putting himself up as a candidate for a Jordan F1 drive in 2002.

TO the great delight of his supporters, regularly spotted at Grands Prix the world over carrying Dutch national colors and 'Jos the Boss' placards, Jos Verstappen will be putting on a demonstration of his Arrows F1 car at Zandvoort on 8 September, between the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix.

HEINZ-HARALD FRENTZEN successfully completed his 30 miles of 'shakedown' running in the Prost at Magny-Cours as he prepares for his five races with the French team, having inadvertently traded places with Jordan-bound Jean Alesi.

THE American Le Mans Series has signed a 10-year agreement with the authorities in Washington DC for there to be a annual sportscar race on a street circuit laid out around the Robert F Kennedy Memorial stadium in the nation's capital city.

ALAIN PROST has lashed out at his former friend and team mate Jean Alesi as the French Sicilian prepares for life as a Jordan driver, having jumped ship after a second miserable year with Prost's outfit.

HONDA's head of racing development has suggested that its struggle to get on the pace of the likes of Mercedes-Benz and BMW is in part due to lacking the expertise of teams like Williams and McLaren, with whom it raced to a string of titles in the 1980s and '90s.

IT seems likely that the current showdown on the engine regulations for Formula 1 will see the current generation of 3.0-liter, 18,000 rpm 'screamers' killed off by the start of 2003 as concerns mount over the prodigious power available to the top F1 teams.

TURKISH AUTOMOBILE FEDERATION chief Mumtaz Tahincioglu has announced his intention to bring a Grand Prix to Istanbul, declaring: "Formula One would bring economic advantages to Turkey. My aim is to take on this project and overcome all obstacles."

JEAN ALESI and Jordan will have a chance to dip a toe in the water of their new partnership before the Hungarian Grand Prix, thanks to a clause in the enforced 'holiday' during the three weeks between the German and Hungarian Grands Prix.

BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO, the parent company of British American Racing, is buying into the Korean tobacco market, following the decision of the Korean government to end the monopoly on manufacturing which previously existing in the country.

ARROWS test driver Johnny Herbert is off to the United States this weekend for a test in the Indy Racing League and it is looking increasingly likely that the English driver will make a new career in the American series next year.

THE governing body of British motor sport, the MSA, has denied that it was contacted by the FIA president Max Mosley over concerns that the traffic arrangements are below par for the British Grand Prix.

IN a case that has important implications in the automobile world, the California Supreme Court this week ruled that a firearms manufacturing company cannot be held legally responsible for the use of the weapons it produces.

THE bodies of the pilot of Joao Paulo Diniz's Augusta helicopter and his fashion model girlfriend have been recovered from the coast off the family's hometown of Sao Paulo over a week after the aircraft crashed.

THE flow of sons of famous fathers seem never ending in Formula 1. After Hill and Villeneuve, the sport is awaiting the arrival of a new Fabi, one of the Cheever gang, another Rosberg is on the way and now from Brazil comes word of a new Piquet.

NIKI LAUDA has spoken out in favor of the decision by his department, Ford's Premier Performance Division, to split the efforts of Cosworth and Pi Research with the groups third arm, Jaguar Racing, and the Arrows team in 2002.

IT is not long ago that Tommy Suharto was the man trying to promote the idea of a Grand Prix in Indonesia. He was head of the country's national sporting authority and an active racer in his own right.

BRITAIN's triple Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert has ruled out making an immediate race debut in the CART Champ Cars series after unofficially breaking the British closed circuit record at the new Rockingham oval in Northamptonshire.

WERNER KLATTEN, the new chief executive of Formula 1 shareholder EM.TV, on Wednesday told the annual shareholder meeting in Munich that he intends to refocus the troubled company on its core business of trading broadcast rights and merchandising for the children's market.

IN what is being regarded as a subtle prod to Tony Blair's Labour government to offer more support to its home round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the British Grand Prix could be missing from next year's International calendar unless there is an adequate explanation forthcoming for the alleged continued traffic chaos at this event.

TOYOTA's indication that it will test during the winter ban may result in the rest of the Formula 1 team owners forcing the Japanese team to sit on the sidelines for a further 12 months should it pursue such a course.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER knows that he is only four points away from the 2001 world championship and is determined to put in a quick, clean kill in Hungary when the Grand Prix circus reconvenes on August 19.

DAVID COULTHARD is refusing to wave a white flag in this year's drivers' world championship, even though a win at the Hungaroring in two weeks will seal the title for Michael Schumacher, and only a string of race wins for Coulthard and non-finishes for Schumacher will alter the course of the championship.